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Wednesday, 19 October 2011

The Path

'The Path' is an inspiring new Second Life exhibition showcasing some of the Metaverse's most talented 3D immersive artists.

Tutsy & Pixie

Tutsy Navarathna & I have visited a number of times since the exhibition opened on the 14th October - me to take the 70-odd pictures that comprise this blog-post, Tutsy to shoot many gigabyte of raw footage which is sure to make an appearance in some future machinima project.

(Click images to enlarge)

The artists invited to install work are:

Bryn Oh

Colin Fizgig

Marcus Inkpen

Desdemona Enfield and Douglas Story

Maya Paris

Claudia222 Jewell

Scottius Polke

Rose Borchovski

Bryn Oh

The artists have fortunately avoided the stereotypical and well-worn "hippy spiritual" connotation all too often associated with the phrase "The Path". Instead, a far more darker - and richer - narrative emerges.

Bryn Oh

The Path, taken as a collection of eight individual installations, was composed using the art technique often referred to as 'the exquisite corpse' and usually ascribed to the Surrealist movement.

Bryn Oh

One artist - in this case Bryn Oh - starts the narrative and composes the beginning of a story. The batten, as it were, is passed to the second artist - Colin Fizgig - who continues developing the story before then passing over to the following artist, and so on.

What evolves from this process is always unpredictable but, given the artistic talent of the respondents in this particular exhibition, the result is of singular and wonderful beauty.

Bryn Oh

Bryn Oh, it often seems to me, is to virtual world art what Philip K Dick is to novels.

Her work has dark undercurrents minutely explored in fine detail.

It is always exquisite.

But even as you start to recognise an object - be it inanimate or organic - you realise that it has its own skewed reality; it resides in a universe that you are only barely familiar with - one that is at right-angles or perpendicular to your own.

There is always a hint of madness, a definite sense of sadness, of loneliness and abandonment in Bryn Oh's work.

The Path advances from the watery-confined space of Bryn Oh's abandoned domestic living to a vast expansive hall created by Colin Fizgig.

Markus Inkpen

A large, beautifully detailed bust of "The Inventor" by Markus Inkpen is surrounded by numerous 3D vignettes.

Markus Inkpen/Colin Fizgig

Fizgig's vignettes are fabulously done and need to be seen in-world to really appreciate the 3D depth that they manage to convey.

Colin Fizgig

Colin Fizgig

Colin Fizgig

As you explore each of the vignettes in the vast hall, you are casually and subtly introduced to some of those elements which will recur time and again as you travel The Path.

Markus Inkpen/Colin Fizgig

But at this still early stage of your journey, what exactly these might be is still far from clear.

Colin Fizgig

Once you have located the secret teleport, you progress from Colin's installation to Markus Inkpen's.

Markus Inkpen

Regular readers of this humble blog will know that I adore 'The Looking Glass' - a whole sim installation created by Markus himself along with his partner Sharni Azalee - I wrote an extensive blog-post about it in July 2011.

Markus Inkpen

You arrive at Markus Inkpen's Path installation to be greeted by the most glorious red-wood textures - and confronted by a daunting array of slightly misshaped doorways.

Markus Inkpen

Visually, it looks magnificent and you know enough by now to intuit that your progress along The Path lies behind one of these many doors.

Markus Inkpen

And herein would be my only criticism of this particular work: although there are many doors and you know the exit lies behind one of them, that exit door is the only door which is actually interactive. The rest do not open or in any other way interact with the audience.

I know because I clicked almost every single one "just in case"!

It occurred to me that it would be fun if a number of the doors had some simple form of interaction - even if only opening and closing - just to introduce some "game" element to the work.

YMMV.

Of the eight installations of The Path, I found this installation had the hardest of all the hidden teleports to find. So I offer this clue...

Markus Inkpen

Desdemona Enfield and Douglas Story's installation uses standard media streaming (not media-on-a-prim) so ensure that it is enabled to be able to see their work.

For that matter, it should be noted that all eight of the installations supplement their visual components with sounds, so be sure to have your stream on and volume up.

Desdemona Enfield & Douglas Story

The installation comprises numerous metallic-like spheres - each with differing but now familiar textures - which approach, surround and batter you.

With the sound especially, the effect is really quite claustrophobic - deliberately so.

Desdemona Enfield & Douglas Story

You need to swipe at the spheres, sweep and hit them to pummel them away.

It is really quite a fun game to play but unfortunately, in doing so, both Tutsy & I accidently brushed against the exit-tp and was prematurely catapulted to the next installation before we had really had the opportunity to take it all in.

Claudia herself is modest and unassuming and has an attractive air of vulnerability about her.

She is adorable.

Claudia222 Jewell

However, she clearly has a much darker side too.

Claudia222 Jewell

I left Claudia and Tutsy to chat about their native France and shared interest in all-things-India and went exploring her latest work.

Claudia222 Jewell

Claudia222 Jewell

Claudia222 Jewell

In this installation, "The Path" is realised quite literally - you walk along a designated pathway to the nearby towering village.

Claudia222 Jewell

Around you and below you are the fauna and foliage and other dark weirdness and beauty you associate with Claudia's work.

Claudia222 Jewell

And, as always, it is beautifully executed.

Claudia222 Jewell

Claudia222 Jewell

Claudia222 Jewell

If you need a clue to find the secret teleport from this installation to the next, all I can suggest is you remember your Lovecraftian lore and think of Dagon.

Scottius Polke

The transition from the dark but tranquil village life of Claudia's installation to the Mad Scientist laboratory of Scottius Polke is like some metaversal evolutionary punctuated equilibrium.

Scottius Polke

Scottius develops the now familiar memes we have come to associate with The Path but treats them like a deadly virus or better still, a micro-organism, that needs to be investigated, experimented upon - and changed.

Scottius Polke

Or perhaps sedated, hypnotized and overcome.

Scottius Polke

Scottius Polke

Scottius Polke

The truth is, however, that you will need to completely immerse yourself in his experiments if you are to escape his clutches and find your way to Rose Borchovski's installation for The Path.

In July 2010, an installation by Rose called 'The Kiss' was removed from the Linden-owned SL7B sims because Susa was naked, apparently breaking the Community Standards.

It really was a bizarre decision from the Lindens.

However, in fairness, my art-machinima called 'The Kiss' probably breaks the Linden's Community Standards too...but for more obvious reasons!

Rose Borchovski

In recent times there have been numerous discussions throughout the blogsphere as to whether the Linden Game Gods should or should not become involved with in-world activities, other than in matters of governance.

They have been accused of manipulating both the rental market and in-world purchases via. the Linden Assisted Living scheme and the web-based Marketplace, respectively.

Personally, I have no rabbit in this race and do not have any strong feelings either way although, by nature, I subscribe to the philosophy that "the Government that governs best of all is the Government the governs least of all".

Rose Borchovski

However, that said, if the Lindens *are* to get involved in-world, then I believe The Path and other similar Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) projects are precisely the sort of thing they should be doing.

My concern, I think, and the reason I mention it here and now, is that Susa is depicted as clothed for The Path whereas Rose has previously said that "When I hide Susa's nakedness, I have stopped telling her story".

I hope that Rose decided to have Susa clothed here because she felt that that best told Susa's story for The Path, rather than some self-censorship because the installation is on Linden land.

IMPORTANT EDIT #1:Since writing this, Bryn Oh has contacted me to confirm that Rose was under no influence to clothe Susa and, further, that the Lindens do not have an influence over LEA projects as it is run by residents.

IMPORTANT EDIT #2:Rose Borchovski further clarifies the actual situation in the comments below.

Rose Borchovski

This eighth and final installation for The Path encompasses seven beds; each one provides a teleport to one of the previous installations.

Rose Borchovski

Rose Borchovski

Rose Borchovski

Rose Borchovski

Rose Borchovski

Rose Borchovski

Rose Borchovski

Although The Path is designed to be travelled in a circuit, the fact remains that each one is strong enough to be explored and enjoyed in its own right.

Rose Borchovski

The curator has conveniently provided landmarks for those who only want to visit specific installations - or who cannot find the hidden teleports!

I am therefore not giving anything away to provide the following links:

Tutsy & I did journey the circuit of The Path, as well as visiting each individually numerous times.

I found the experience to be inspiring and joyful; thought provoking and meaningful.

The Path represents some of the very best that virtual world art currently has to offer. It sets a high benchmark.

My only suggestion would be that we virtual world artists need to think more about increasing the level of audience participation in our work - a game element, if you will.

Platforms such as Second Life provide scripting/coding which is mostly unavailable in other artistic mediums. In one sense, the use of interactive scripts is what differentiates - or at least *could* differentiate - virtual world art from other mediums. Virtual world art can *change* and *respond*; it can interact and give the feeling of participation rather than simply observing.

I believe the next step in virtual world art is to exploit this possibility and that this exhibit of eight installations will be recognised as a significant and important milestone on that Path.

8 comments:

Thanks for the kind words. But a slight correction: our section of "The Path" does not use media-on-a-prim. Rather, it uses the old method of streaming video...this so that people running old-school viewers like Phoenix can still enjoy it.

Thank you Pixie for this great Blog on the path)I can assure you that I do not censure myself by dressing Susa in the path.Like in my machinima's when I present Susa in 3d she is dressed, not because I want to hide her nakedness. In 3d her body and the movements are not that attractive and sent out a message I do not like.Ty ) rose♥

About Me

Digital Arts student in London, UK.
This blog concerns my work in the Second Life™ virtual world.
Click the "Film Links" tab above for links to my machinima or scroll down to read my what I fondly pass off as my thoughts, opinions and quirky humour.